News

Goings On About Town: Art

by Vince Alleti

Yvon

The New Yorker

1/11/2011

Pierre Yves Petit (1886-1969), who signed his work Yvon, made some of the most famous postcard views of Paris, photographing the city when the sun was dimmed by clouds, fog, or a passing shower. Familiar sights ”Notre-Dame, Sacre-Coeur, the Eiffel Tower” are bathed in the flattering platinum light so typical of the city. But the ability to capture romantic atmosphere was only part of Yvon’s charm. Like a filmmaker, he knew how to set a scene, and his most appealing images include people, like the straw-hatted gardener on a ladder in the Tuileries, watering the flowers in a giant urn. Although these vintage prints are not much larger than the original postcards, Yvon’s seductive powers are undiminished. Through Jan. 29.